"Truly, it is the indescribable sweetness of contemplation which you give to those who love you. In this you have shown the tenderness of your charity, that when I had no being you made me; and when I strayed away from you, you brought me back again to serve you and commanded me to love you." The Imitation of Christ

Wednesday, 11 November 2009

We Will Remember Them...

For The Fallen

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,England mourns for her dead across the sea.Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royalSings sorrow up into immortal spheres,There is music in the midst of desolationAnd a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.At the going down of the sun and in the morningWe will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;They sit no more at familiar tables of home;They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,To the innermost heart of their own land they are knownAs the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,To the end, to the end, they remain.

4 comments:

Samuel Johnson said "Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier..." 'But those with any sense feel this way not because they missed an adventure (though they did) but because they know that those who took up arms against the foe, from Salamis to Afghanistan, risked more for us than we ever will for them and gave, far too often, what no one can begin to repay'. John Robson

Year For Priests

About Me

I was about to describe myself as a young Catholic woman, but alas, that is no longer strictly true (two out of three isn't bad)!
I came back to the Church 22 years ago after what I consider to be a Damascus Road conversion, and
I'm fairly traditional in my outlook.
I am a single woman living and working in the world (as a Science teacher), and I took private vows in December 2002.